I don't know about your supermarket, but on the third
Thursday in November mine has a wine and cheese party. The
occasion, of course, is so I won't forget it is Beaujolais
Nouveau Day.

This is not some 400-year-old tradition; it only dates
to 30 years ago. Apparently, the young wine was consumed on
this date before then, but it
was only this recently that somebody had the bright idea to
put it in bottles. Some people say Emile Chandesais thought
it up in 1962 and others say it was Georges Duboeuf in
1968.

Wine this young is liable to be nearly undrinkable, so
the Beaujolais Nouveau 'tradition' is surrounded by rumors
of hanky-panky as well as a lot of 100 percent hype.

Of the 60 million bottles, half go for export and some
of it goes to China. Germans take the most, and I have
personally seen them drink it like beer. But, aha, Japan
raised its order by 400 percent this year!

Somehow, Le Parisien got invited to a 'premiere' at Aux
Negociants on the north side of Montmartre. Officially the
new wine is on sale starting at midnight on Thursday - but
to feature it in Thursday's editions, they must have
started a bit early the night before.

The verdict: both at my supermarket and at Aux
Negociants - the year's Beaujolais Nouveau is good plonk.
One thoughtful taster said, "All things considered, it
doesn't smell like English bon-bons. Not bad at
all"

Serious Wine Futures Jump, Seriously

The 138th auction of new wine of the Hospices de Beaune
saw eager buyers willing to push the 1998 prices to their
highest levels since the record levels scored in 1985 and
1989.

The average for a barrel holding 228 litres of wine was
42,806 francs; for, as one expert said, a year without a
good outlook and of very mixed quality - especially in
comparison with the years of 1995, '96 and '97. All the
same, prices rose 12 percent at the sales last Sunday.

For the first time, more bottles of bourgogne rouge were
sold to foreign buyers than French dealers. Foreign sales
were up by 25 percent, and Japanese buyers doubled their
purchases over last year. This puts them in second place
after Britain, and ahead of the United States and
Germany.

Paris Gets Another New International
Airport

Ireland's Ryanair has been having a nigh-flying success
running inexpensive scheduled flights between Ireland and a
local airport at Beauvais in the Oise; which can be reached
by shuttle-bus from Porte Maillot in one hour and 15
minutes.

The regular round-trip fare of about 700 francs is
about a half to a third of the Aer Lingus-Air France
fares, but usually have the condition of including a
weekend in Ireland. Ryanair is running a Boeing 737-200 at
85 percent capacity on this route, with three daily
flights

The BHV department store getting a facelift -
and it might get Christmas windows too.

Newcomer to the Paris-Offshore routes is Debonair, which
intends to make Cormeilles-sur-Vexin - which is also in the
Val-d'Oise - its French landing point. Its flight is called
'Pontoise-Luton' and it takes passengers to north London.
The promo price for a round trip is currently 607 francs
and the condition required is staying two nights there.

Although these airports are not served by métro
or RER lines, once at them check-in is fast. Passengers get
their boarding passes, get on the planes and take off. I
don't know whether either airport has a duty-free
shop.

Weekend in Tahiti

The big tour operator Nouvelles
Frontières has taken a leaf from an American
book and now offers trips on its Web site. These can
include ten days in Tahiti, with round-trip and hotel, for
1380 francs instead of the catalogue price of 5,890.

Every Tuesday afternoon Nouvelles Frontières puts
up an online auction of unsold tickets, to go to the
highest bidder, and the bidding is done online. Needless to
say, Nouvelles Frontières urgently needs to add line
capacity to its site.

Some German operators are putting up Friday afternoon
offers - for an evening in the nightclubs of Mallorca. They
have absolutely rock-bottom prices because all they offer
is the round trip; you don't need a hotel room for
all-night dancing and if you conk out early you can sleep
in the airport.

'Winter' Sports News

On Thursday night the leaders of the 6th Route du Rhum
sailboat race from France to Guadaloupe were almost neck to
neck, with Laurent Bourgnon 436 sea miles from
Pointe-à-Pitre and Alain Gautier only 27 miles
behind. And Marc Guillemot is on Gautier's heels.

The sailboat race was captured by second-time winner
Laurent Bourgnon on Friday, after setting a new record of
12 days, eight hours and 41 minutes - knocking a whopping
two days off his winning 1994 time.

This race was won with a trimaran; the single-hulled
sailboats are not expected to arrive for another two weeks.
This is terrific for residents of Pointe-à-Pitre
because they have a big party planned for each arrival, no
matter how long they take.

Fresh Snow

Snow has been recently reported in the Alps - a month
earlier than usual - so I guess Winter Sports can be said
to be officially taking place wherever there is enough
white stuff to cover the granite and mud.

All the more reason to visit the winter sports Web site to see
what's new this year for your entertainment in higher
altitudes. It contains a lot of useful information in
French and English about weather, snow, equipment,
accommodations, resorts and facilities; all of which are
available in France's more vertical areas, none of which
are remotely close to Paris' own Montmartre and other
nearby hills.

As far as this type of 'sport' is concerned, I have
always preferred getting no closer to cold and snow than my
car in the underground garage. Luckily I can get to this
without going outside. I have also been seriously thinking
for years of getting some of Damart's very warm underwear,
but I'm afraid that if I do, I will get wangled into
delivering flyers from door to door.